Sunday, February 21, 2010

Easy Presents for Kids Parties, a Yummy Dinner, and Family Reading

If you have little kids like me, then they probably get invited to a lot of birthday parties. I always encourage my kids to make their friends a gift.I know it's a lot easier to go to Target and drop $15 or $20, but I just happen to think that hand-made gifts are special.This is a really easy and fun project to make for kids birthday parties. Banners to hang in the friends room! For this one, Ashton picked out the papers that his friend liked and I cut the triangles out for him. We printed her name out on the computer and used pop-dots to adhere them.

He decorated each triangle from the banner differently. For the one below, he found the cupcakes in a coloring book and after coloring them with crayons he cut and glued them on. He also used buttons, glitter, a picture of Hannah Montana, and some pretty ribbon. With a little bit of guidance, any child can make one of these. It can be customized to each individual childs interests and likes so easily.

On another note, I am totally addicted to this cookbook. I use it at least once or twice a week. Tonite I made the Marlboro Man steak sandwiches and made this cornbread. YUUUUUUUUM!! Oh yeah, it's not the healthiest dinner, so I made sure to make a big salad too:)

Lastly, we started reading together as a family a couple of weeks ago. We are a big reading house...I myself am an avid reader and I encourage reading of all kinds with my kids. I personally think that if you are a good reader, you will be a curious and good student. But that's another post for another time.

We started reading a chapter book out loud every night before bed. I am trying to pick books that will keep the attention of a very wide range...3 1/2, 5, and almost 10. That in itself is a bit of a challenge. We read this one last week:

It is set in 1912 and it's about a Jewish family with five daughters growing up in New York. I loved all the lessons the book presented and all the kids enjoyed it.

Tonite we started Ramona Quimby, Age 8. These were my favorites growing up. They are so funny and well-written, and so far the kids like this one as well.

Do you have any suggestions for family reading? I would love to continue this tradition and need some more books that would be appropriate for my wide age range!

10 comments:

I love anything written by Kate DiCamillo... (And this is coming from a 2nd grade teacher.) You might also like "The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane", but I think I liked the story more than the kids.

OMG, that was one of my favorite books as a kid! I must have checked it out of the library 50 times. I also loved Amelia Bedelia when I was very young and moved on to the Wrinkle in Time series as I got older. Aside from the classics, Philip Pullman is great, too!

LOL - I got the Pioneer Woman's Cookbook (for myself) for Christmas and love it. Everything I have made from it is yummy. I haven't been bold enough to do the steak sandwiches yet but I know everyone here would enjoy them :)